Found: One Troll

Probably some readers are aware of Australia’s idiotic video game censorship system. Unlike movies, which can be classified up to a level of R18+ (suitable for adults only), the video game classification system in Australia only scales up to M15+ (suitable for teenagers). My understanding is that altering this policy requires the unanimous consent of Australia’s various State Attorneys General.

The inevitable stuck pixel, in this case, is Attorney General Michael Atkinson of South Australia. AG Atkinson wrote a letter recently to Grow Up Australia (Via GamePolitics) explaining why he wouldn’t vote aye for an R18+ classification to be added to the system for games. It reads, in very small part: “I cannot fathom what State-enforced safeguards could exist to prevent R.18+ games being bought by households with children and how children can be stopped from using these games once the games are in the home. If adult gamers are so keen to have R.18+ games, I expect children would be just as keen.”

Well, Mr. Atkinson, that’s none of the State’s gorram business, is it? I can see how an official from a government with State-enforced firearm safety checks would think that censorship and “saving the children” is part of its mission, but you are wrong. Let me put it plainly: how your citizens choose to entertain themselves is none of your concern until they start hurting each other. Without mutual consent.

Age gates have been pissing me off lately, mostly because it’s about to be omgvideogameseason just like Q4 of every year for two decades and every game studio’s website is protected by this time wasting bullshit. Why the hell do most video game websites have annoying can’t-bypass birthdate verification, but any idiot can get free porn without any sort of pretend age query at all. Video game developers: please un-fuck yourselves. Video games should not be less socially acceptable than porn and neither should be less so than Michael Moore.

Speakers arrived today. I’m setting them up now, then I’m going to watch Independence Day. Party tomorrow, review Sunday.

This might be the most amusing line I’ve ever read in a video game review: “Weapons are hard to aim, with obscuring sights attached to most of them. . .”

The game is Darkest of Days by 8monkey Labs and Destructoid gave it a 1/10. Now, I played Darkest of Days at PAX, was impressed, and purchased the game on Tuesday. I also beat it on Tuesday, but I was laid out with H1Nerd1, what else was I going to do? Regardless, the weapons in the game are not difficult to aim if you understand what sights are for.

I can understand Destructoid’s confusion;  in lots of games the iron sights on weapons are for show and you’ve got a magic crosshair to tell you where to point your shootin’ stick. In Darkest of Days, if you want to hit anything with regularity you need to put your front sight on target and press. The sights obscure your target when they’re doing their job you hacks.

Some of Destructoid’s beefs with Darkest of Days are legitimate, but overall I thought it was a pretty fun game. It was worth the $35 I paid for it. I was prepared to suspend disbelief for a game about a time-traveling 19th century US cavalryman.

Of course, they played the X360 version. If you play an FPS on a console, you deserve what you get.

I’ve been a bad blogger. I went to a three-day convention and didn’t write a single word this weekend. At least, not here. You can find all my coverage of PAX over here. I had a great time. There’s some good eating in downtown Seattle and the weather was perfect pretty much the entire time. I didn’t see any games on the main show floor that made me think, “meh.” It was a different story in the indie developer and budget MMO area, but overall I was really impressed with the software each developer brought to the expo.

The rest of the expo was great as well, from the console free play lounge, where one could check out console titles to play for a while, to the tabletop LFG/free play, which was much the same thing for board games and tabletop roleplaying, to the handheld lounges on each floor, which were basically vast expanses of beanbag chairs in which to chill out with some DS or PSP for a while. There were several areas where impromptu bands could walk up and rock out with Rock Band; fake bands thrilling real crowds with amusing antics on stage. There was also, of course, the Omegathon, where randomly chosen attendees (who are notified before the show) compete for the title of Alpha Omeganaut in several single elimination rounds. This year’s Omegathon rounds included, in order, Mario Kart Double Dash, Bookworm Adventures, Halo3: ODST, Rock Band: Beatles, Connect Four, and Skee-Ball. You’ve got to be a pretty well-rounded gamer to succeed in that tournament. PAX attendees also set a new world record for most Nintendo DS systems at use in one place at one time: 910 was the final count at the record-setting event on Friday evening before that night’s concert.

The concerts were pretty fantastic. I’m not a big fan of the electronica bands Freezepop and Anamanaguchi, but everyone else who played (Metroid Metal, MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton) delivered epic performances. I was personally pretty stoked to finally see JoCo live, and he has a great stage presence.

Unfortunately I didn’t get around to any of the panels this year. If I return next year I’ll definitely spend less time on the floor and more time at panels. I brought home plenty of swag, shirts, comic books, beta passes, et cetera. And also Swine Flu, so that’s nice. I spent Sunday and Monday laid out and nearly immobile. I’m starting to feel better today; my fever is down, I have an appetite again, and I can walk 20 feet without collapsing which is a huge improvement. Oh well, if you mingle with 75,000 people that sort of thing is bound to happen once in a while. All-in-all PAX was a great experience. I hope I can make it next year.

Zombie co-workers are only slightly less of a concern than werewolf managers.

This song is by the nerd-tastic Jonathan Coulton, who I am looking forward to seeing live next month at PAX. I’ll be writing some of the PAX coverage for GamingTrend.com, which is run by my good friend Ron Burke.

The new Ghostbusters game was released on Tueday, and I spent my evenings this week playing through the PC version. I am a huge Ghostbusters fan, and when I heard that Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis were writing the script and story for the new game, there was no way that it would not be a day-one purchase for me. They came through in a big way, but before I discuss the high points of the game, there are some seriously glaring problems with the PC version. Review after the jump.

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If I haven’t already, this is the game that will make me quit WoW:

I am a hopeless Star Wars fan.

I was thinking about podcasts, speeches, bloggers, and other geekery today, and I eventually came around to one speech that is the epitomy of geekdom. Two years ago at PAX  2007 Wil Wheaton gave the keynote speech. The topic was video gaming as a social activity, and the entire speech is an excellent refutation of basically everything Jack Thompson has ever said. The highlight of the speech, though, is Wheaton’s exhoration for modern gamers, who largely spend life hidden behind an anonymous wall of bits: Don’t Be a Dick.

I’ve had a few search hits for “repair rethought reborn crash” on my other Fallout 3 Mod post, and since that’s a bug I encountered myself I figured I’d post the fix here. The cause of a Fallout 3 crash to desktop when you have the Repair Rethought Reborn mod enabled is almost always that you are using the wrong .esp file. There are currently four .esp files that come with the mod, one for vanilla FO3, one for each DLC pack, and one for FO3 with both DLC packs enabled. You should only enable the file that matches the version of Fallout 3 that you are playing. Here’s the part that causes the most crashes: the mod only works if you have the DLC in your local Fallout 3/Data folder. Games for Windows Live puts the DLC in your AppData folder by default. If you leave it there and run RRR, your game will crash. Here’s how to fix it:

1. Find the DLC that you’ve purchased. In Vista, it’s usually under C:\Users\$USERNAME\AppData\Local\Fallout3. It will consist of a .esm file and two .bsa files (Ex. ThePitt.esm, ThePitt – Main.bsa, ThePitt – Sounds.bsa).
2. Copy all three of these files to the Data directory in your Fallout 3 directory. (Ex. D:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3\Data)
3. Launch Fallout 3 or Fallout 3 Mod Manager and check the boxes to load the .esm files for your DLC. If you are using FOMM then the DLC .esms should be loaded immediately after Fallout3.esm.
4. Choose the appropriate Repair Rethought Reborn module to load.

And that’s all there is to it. That should fix crashes encountered as a result of having Repair Rethought Reborn enabled.